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East Side HS student documentary to air on Cablevision

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U.S. Senator Cory Booke takes questions from students Diana Carvalho and Jaleel Thomas after the screening of Cablevision's "Student Lens", a student-produced video project, at East Side High School in Newark on Friday.
( Steve Hockstein for the Star-Ledger )

NEWARK — U.S. Sen Cory Booker is often featured on television answering probing questions about his background, leadership style and senatorial record.

In a short documentary airing on Cablevision later this month, the interviewer putting the senator in the hot seat isn't a television anchor or a newspaper reporter, but an East Side High School student.

Mariana Duarte,17, was one of four East Side High School students who worked on the documentary through a partnership with Cablevision and the school's new media studies program. Asked if she was nervous about interviewing Booker, Duarte said no.

"He made us feel relaxed," she said. "So it wasn't bad."

The video project is the second installment of Cablevision's "Student Lens" series. As part of the series, student videographers interview a legislator in their community and follow him or her with a camera for a day.

Cablevision gives the school $1,000 to cover the expenses to produce the documentary and advises students on shooting and editing the piece. The end product airs on television.

The first installment of "Student Lens" was a documentary featuring Assembly speaker Vincent Prieto made by Memorial High School students in West New York.

“It was a project that fit very well into what our school does,” said Tom Wolverton, a new media studies teacher at East Side High School who helped the students put the project together.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker greets East Side High School student filmmakers Andre Da Silva, Dylan Alves and Mariana Duarte.Steve Hockstein for the Star-Ledger

In the five-minute video, Booker talks about the influence of his family on his career, his role in politics, the economy and the purpose of grassroots organizing.

"What I wanted to focus on was the connection of the senator to the youth of the community," said Duarte, an aspiring politician and member of the student debate team.

"It was very cool how he lived here."

She and three other students also accompanied Booker to a summit on fatherhood in Newark and a roundtable discussion at Passaic County College with Congressman Bill Pascrell to talk to college students about unemployment Insurance.

"It was pretty cool," said Andre Da Silva, 17, a rising senior who helped shoot video for the project. "It's not something I have done before."

Da Silva added that he was impressed by Duarte. "Interviewing a senator is not an easy job."

On Friday, Booker, a former Newark mayor, visited East Side High School to see an initial screening of the project in front of a crowd of students.

"Ya know I've been interviewed by a lot of people and I would put her in the pantheon of, like Oprah," Booker said of Duarte and the documentary. "She's rougher than 'Meet the Press.'"

The video will be posted on powertolearn.com after Wednesday and will air June 29 on channel 18 at 7 p.m. The network plans to work with other schools and legislators in the near future.